Crime & Safety
Bail Hearing for Fiancee Accused of Kayak Killing
Prosecutors say she told police it felt good to watch him die; her attorney says her command of English isn't that good.
At a bail hearing for Angelika Graswald today in Orange County, prosecutors told the court she had told police it “felt good” knowing her fiancee was going to die, according to news reports.
However, her attorney Richard A. Portale downplayed the alleged remark in a press conference after the bail hearing, laying some blame on the fact that Graswald, a Russian-speaker, was suffering from hypothermia, was suffering from the loss of her fiancee, and struggles with English.
Orange County officials charged the Poughkeepsie resident with second-degree murder 10 days after her fiancee, Vincent Viafore, went missing while kayaking on the Hudson River April 19.
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At the time, neither the state police nor Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler gave any details about their investigation or the crime that is alleged to have taken place.
The story state police originally released was that Graswald and Viafore were kayaking at about 7:30 p.m. when rough water and strong wind and currents caused him to capsize. Viafore was not wearing a flotation device and was unable to return to his kayak. Graswald called 911 to report the incident. During her efforts to assist Viafore, she fell out of her own kayak. She was subsequently located in the water by a boater and was rescued.
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Portale said he thought many of the statements prosecutors described were coerced or misrepresented.
His mission today was to find out what was in the indictment, he said. “Everybody’s been in the dark, they refused to tell us what she was indicted for... We forced their hand to reveal what was happening.”
Asked about the bail hearing, Orange County District Attorney David Hoolver replied in a written statement, “The investigation is continuing. The bail application proceedings before Judge Freehill revealed the preliminaries of the case.”
“She’s depressed, she’s hurting,” Portale said. “But she’s confident that by the time this is over the truth will have come out.”
The judge set her bail at $3 million or $9 million bond, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported.
See his complete press conference in a Poughkeepsie Journal video here.
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